


Castle

by TheUnindoctrinated



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 15:49:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11924139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnindoctrinated/pseuds/TheUnindoctrinated
Summary: After some bad news Commander Shepard is in a foul mood, luckily a certain Turian is there to help. Short fluff-fic.





	Castle

“They’re right Shepherd, there’s nothing we can do without proof.”

Udina’s condescending voice still rang in Shepard’s ears as she stormed out of the elevator and into the cargo deck of the Normandy, angrily tossing her leather jacket onto the floor. Leaving her in a simple black tank top and military pants, her dog tags jingling on her chest from the exaggerated movement. They wouldn’t believe her about the Reapers invading and now her hands were tied, countless lives would be lost because they wouldn’t be prepared. The anger boiled in her stomach like fire, she had to do something before it turned her to ash. Pulling up her arm she accessed her personal files on her omnitool and fed an old earth song into the speakers of the cargo bay.

She crouched as the intro started and untied her heavy combat boots, pulling them off her feet and placing them to the side where her discarded jacket lay crumpled. Now in her bare feet she hopped up just the cool female voice began warbling out the lyrics, the sound quality a little degraded from the age.

“ Sick of all these people talking, sick of all this noise

Tired of all these cameras flashing, sick of being poised

And now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it

Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it.”

Shepard raised her arms above her head and stretched as she lightly stepped across the floor to the more open area in the center of the room. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she dropped her arms back down, shaking her hands out as she did so. She had raised the volume of the music as to drown out everything else, letting the beat vibrate through her, and as the heavy bass rolled in she raised her closed fists and swung her leg around in an aggressively executed roundhouse kick.

“ I'm headed straight for the castle

They wanna make me their queen

And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying that I probably shouldn't be so mean

I'm headed straight for the castle

They’ve got the kingdom locked up

And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut

Straight for the castle.”

The exertion of her shadow boxing was helping to some extent, though without the resistance of another person the push wasn’t there enough to get at the deepest part of the darkness that had settled inside her like a monster eating at her soul. She closed her eyes tightly against her thoughts and the angry tears that threatened to spill. She could not let herself be weak yet.

“Oh, all these minutes passing, sick of feeling used

If you wanna break these walls down, you’re gonna get bruised

And now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it

Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it.”

Just as Shepard spun in another kick she was completely caught off guard when she hit a solid force instead of air. She dropped her leg quickly as her eyes shot open and she instinctively danced a few steps back, away from what had impeded her movement. Her eyes landed on the serious face of Garrus Vakarian, he had his arms up in front of him which is what her shin had hit. She opened her mouth to apologize but pressed her semi-dry lips back together as Garrus silently slid one foot back and took the basic turian sparring stance. It was then that Shepard noticed that he had removed his outer armor and was just in the undershirt and pants that he wore under it. How long had he been in the room before coming to get her attention?

Something in Shepard’s chest began to warm, leave it to Garrus to understand what she was feeling and how words weren’t going to help the darkness of warriors like them. She didn’t hesitate a moment longer as her calf muscles tightened to launch her forwards, though was careful to dodge his superior reach. The music, though still pulsing through the air was now long forgotten in Shepard’s mind as the two of them danced around each other exchanging carefully timed blows.

The heat in Shepard’s chest started to grow hotter as the spar drew on, she found herself avoiding the turian’s sharp gaze to keep the heat from spreading up into her cheeks and distracting her further. But for the moment the anger had abated and was replaced by this new awkwardness. She knew she needed to end this quickly before he noticed anything, and that meant fighting a little dirty.

Without announcing herself she dropped under his next punch and all the way down to a crouching position before sweeping her leg around to aim for the back of his knees, though the motion was a hooking one and not a straight attack as to not trigger the pain response and lock up his joints. What Shepard did not account for was when Garrus did topple he came down forwards, she having just enough time to scramble back so he only landed on her legs.

Shepard’s throat felt tight and her mouth dry as she heard Garrus laughing at her trick, he pushing himself up on his arms to meet her gaze, but whatever was going to come from his mouth died on his tongue as he took in the look on her face that was in close proximity to his own now. She tried to find something to say, anything to break this tense silence between them but her eyes watched how his mandibles opened wide then shuttered slowly back closed. She had never seen him to that before, not really knowing what it meant.

“Garrus….I….” She started to stammer out words without knowing where she was going, but was interrupted by her music cutting out and Joker’s voice calling her to the bridge to talk to Anderson.

Garrus finally looked away, his head moved sharply like someone who just realized he had been staring. He quickly pushed himself up back to his feet and walked over to scoop up his discarded armor, still not saying anything to her, which she was partially grateful for as she responded to Joker and picked herself up off the floor. As she walked over to her shoes she slipped her feet into them without tying them, not really caring about them at the moment. She pulled her leather jacket back on and stuffed her hands in her pockets before heading to the elevator. At the door she turned to look over her shoulder at Garrus.

“Thank you.” She finally got something coherent out.

“Anytime Shepard.”

**Author's Note:**

> Castle (song lyrics) belong to their respected owners.


End file.
